Your Best Tip on Getting Better

[mechanic]

Fight people better than you and when they spank you say 'thanks, can we do this again?'

[mikev]

To any newbies, Latrobe said it best " Never EVER give up." If you can do this 1 simple thing the rest will take care of itself.
 The second best advice I can give is learn how to control your frustrations. 1 thing i do is send a message to the pilot let him know "good shot" or joke with him "hehehe bet ya cant do that again" break the ice sorta saying. it will kinda help clear the air ,or at least it does for me. Calling another player with cheap shots will only brew your frustration more.
  and my 3rd  best advice is find your plane or gv . the 1 that fits you best, your bread and butter work it to death either in the MA ,DA ,TA or even offline. push it till it fails you then do it again and again and again. 

[Skyyr]

It's more than one, but here's a copy/paste of a few items I wrote for an ACM site awhile back. They're edited for AH.

1. Ignore what the majority is doing/saying/telling you to do.
Simply put, the majority of players are mediocre at best and terrible at worst. Implementing the collective's advice will simply act to ensure you turn out as mediocre as well. Keep in mind the majority means the majority - your acquaintances are not the exception.

2. Unlearn everything you think you know about dogfighting, and relearn it from the source.
Robert Shaw's Fighter Combat Tactics and Maneuvering is still the textbook reference for dogfighting today because it works. Robert Shaw took the dogfighting and broke it down into it's most basic, fundamental components, and then created modular blocks a pilot could draw on in combat to build tactics on the fly. Contrast that to the way the majority of players learn to play air combat games (this one included), and you begin to realize why rule #1 (above) is true.

3. Being able to fight 1v1 is the most important skill to master.
Every single engagement, whether against one or against ten, can be broken down into a series of 1v1 tactics. If you cannot master the 1v1, you will permanently be at a disadvantage against competent opponents. Master the 1v1 and everything else will follow.

4. Always assume your opponent is perfect.
You should always assume your opponent will not make a mistake. Anything less is presumptuous vanity. Always assuming your competition will fly perfectly quickly narrows your ACM choices and forces you to choose appropriate tactics.

5. Understand your limitations
Contrary to popular belief, there are some fights you simply cannot win if your opponent flies correctly. Learn to identify these scenarios and learn how to mitigate your opponent's advantage during these fights. Doing this will allow you to have realistic expectations, instead of fantasizing the popular opinion that you'll be good enough to win these fights "one day" (see rule #1).

6. Never. Ever. Turn.
Fighter Combat Tactics and Maneuvering, Chapter 4. Those who scoff at this will be doomed to lose to it. Those who understand it comprehend what it actually means.

[Latrobe]

1. Ignore what the majority is doing/saying/telling you to do.
Simply put, the majority of players are mediocre at best and terrible at worst. Implementing the collective's advice will simply act to ensure you turn out as mediocre as well. Keep in mind the majority means the majority - your acquaintances are not the exception.

Just for clarification, does the advice being brought forth in this thread count as a part of the majority or minority?

[pembquist]

Just for clarification, does the advice being brought forth in this thread count as a part of the majority or minority?

Absolutely!

[Dragon Tamer]

It's more than one, but here's a copy/paste of a few items I wrote for an ACM site awhile back. They're edited for AH.

1. Ignore what the majority is doing/saying/telling you to do.
Wrong. Everyone excels in a certain area of the game. It's important to be able to recognize where they excel and weigh their credibility with whether or not that is the area you want to excel in as well.

2. Unlearn everything you think you know about dogfighting, and relearn it from the source.
Wrong. Rather than unlearning everything you learned just because something didn't work, you need to modify what you learned to make it fit into the situation.

3. Being able to fight 1v1 is the most important skill to master.
Fundamentally true, but also being able to keep track of the ten other planes that are circling you is equally, if not more important.

4. Always assume your opponent is perfect.
You should always assume your opponent will not make a mistake. Anything less is presumptuous vanity. Always assuming your competition will fly perfectly quickly narrows your ACM choices and forces you to choose appropriate tactics.

5. Understand your limitations
Yes, know your limitations and then push yourself beyond them. Putting yourself in a situation that you don't excel in over and over is a guaranteed way to improve, especially when there is no risk to you (aside from a ten minute climb out).

6. Never. Ever. Turn.
This is not true at all, knowing when to turn and how hard to turn can turn the fight around before your opponent has a chance to realize what even happened.

[Skyyr]

...

It's always interesting seeing the people who can't beat you tell you about how your advice on flying is wrong. You think that might have something to do with it? 

[DubiousKB]

Sift through the BS that is the forum and you'll be lucky to gleen some good tip & tricks.

 A big problem I had when I first started is understanding the icon range in vertical vs horizontal. It sounds stupid to many of the veterans, but not panick diving away from an icon that still +3 above you is a bit of a waste.

My dad still tries to go straight up at these icons above him because he believes they are closer than they really are.  This boils down to SA, but in the context of the game, it'd be nice to have a clear understanding of how the icon ranges work.

[mechanic]

Skyyr your list has some good advice but mostly it is just a list on how to become an annoyance with no flare or class or sportsmanship.

I understand that is how you want to be.

But don't please try to fill this game up with a population of mini-skyyrs because that really would be the death of aces high.

[Skyyr]

Skyyr your list has some good advice but mostly it is just a list on how to become an annoyance with no flare or class or sportsmanship.

I understand that is how you want to be.

But don't please try to fill this game up with a population of mini-skyyrs because that really would be the death of aces high.

Skill > Flare or Class or Sportsmanship, at least when it comes to virtual bullets impacting your aircraft.

And yes, I plan on filling AH with numerous mini-me's who care about skill first and foremost. If that's the death of Aces High, it sure says a lot about the ability level of the playerbase. I intend to up that overall ability level one way or another.

[-ammo-]

And yes, I plan on filling AH with numerous mini-me's, who care about skill first and foremost. If that's the death of Aces High, it sure says a lot about the ability level of the playerbase.

I didn't realize you had this agenda.  Most here simply want to enjoy the game the way they want too - it's their money.  I certainly don't preach to my guys in the 56th

[Someguy63]

Skill > Flare or Class or Sportsmanship, at least when it comes to virtual bullets impacting your aircraft.

And yes, I plan on filling AH with numerous mini-me's, who care about skill first and foremost. If that's the death of Aces High, it sure says a lot about the level of the playerbase.

But the problem is that they're the perfect compliment of each other.

One with skills but no flare or sportsmanship has a cup half empty, not half full.

[Skyyr]

One with skills but no flare or sportsmanship has a cup half empty, not half full.

If flare or sportsmanship was required, there'd be a stat tab for it.

Flare and sportsmanship are nice to have because they are, by definition, not required and intangible; much like common courtesy. Courtesy is appreciated because it is optional and generated out of sincerity; make it a requirement or boast about possessing it and it loses all value. Your argument is much the same. The second "flare" and "sportsmanship" is deemed as "necessary" or "required" is the second they become utterly worthless, used as excuses to explain away a lack of skill.

And here we begin with the "majority" collective mentality mentioned in #1.

[glzsqd]

My advice is to not burn yourself out in your attempts to "Be a Elite stick!!!". Most people find their own combination for success, there simply isn't One right answer.

[Dragon Tamer]

It's always interesting seeing the people who can't beat you tell you about how your advice on flying is wrong. You think that might have something to do with it? 

Contrary to what you may have told yourself, I never said that your points were completely wrong. If you actually take the time to read what I wrote, you will see in number one I said that a player's credibility to an individuals definition of "improvement" was the deciding factor.

I acknowledge that your style does offer a level of improvement, however it is a minimalistic style of improvement that is easily obtained by hyper passive aggressive tendencies (ie: avoiding high risk situations).

At the same time, saying that you are better than me (which was even more narcissistic before you edited the mention of the DA out of your post) is not a valid argument to the situations because of many different factors. To start, our preferred fighting styles are nothing alike; I prefer a low E, edge of stall knife fight while you prefer a high E, extended range dog fight.

Secondly, unlike you I don't play to be better than everyone else. I play to be better than myself. Constantly putting myself in high risk situations because I always enjoy challenging myself with new tasks, big or small.

As per your mention to the DA, I guess we'll never know since I don't go to the DA with egocentrics.